Team USA

[Hamartia Antidote]

Crime in the USA: Hollywood vs Reality

US crime rate at lowest point in decades. Why America is safer now. - CSMonitor.com


The crime rate for serious crimes, including murder, rape, and assault, has dropped significantly since the early 1990s in part because of changes in technology and policing, experts say.

By Daniel B. Wood, Staff writer January 9, 2012
The last time the crime rate for serious crime – murder, rape, robbery, assault – fell to these levels, gasoline cost 29 cents a gallon and the average income for a working American was $5,807.

That was 1963.

In the past 20 years, for instance, the murder rate in the United States has dropped by almost half, from 9.8 per 100,000 people in 1991 to 5.0 in 2009. Meanwhile, robberies were down 10 percent in 2010 from the year before and 8 percent in 2009.

The declines are not just a blip, say criminologists. Rather, they are the result of a host of changes that have fundamentally reversed the high-crime trends of the 1980s. And these changes have taken hold to such a degree that the drop in crime continued despite the recent recession.

Because the pattern "transcends cities and US regions, we can safely say crime is down," says James Alan Fox, a criminologist at Northeastern University in Boston. "We are indeed a safer nation than 20 years ago."

He and others give four main reasons for the decline:

• Increased incarceration, including longer sentences, that keeps more criminals off the streets.
• Improved law enforcement strategies, including advances in computer analysis and innovative technology.
• The waning of the crack cocaine epidemic that soared from 1984 to 1990, which made cocaine cheaply available in cities across the US.
• The graying of America characterized by the fastest-growing segment of the US population – baby boomers – passing the age of 50.

The data point to a persistent perception gap among Americans. Despite strong evidence of crime dropping over recent decades, the public sees the reverse. "Recent Gallup polls have found that citizens overwhelmingly feel crime is going up even though it is not," says Professor Fox. "This is because of the growth of crime shows and the way that TV spotlights the emotional. One case of a random, horrific shooting shown repeatedly on TV has more visceral effect than all the statistics printed in a newspaper."

[continued in link]

Another link: Crime in the United States - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

 

[Hamartia Antidote]

Crime in the USA: Pickpocketing - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

A recent article about pickpocketing: 10 Worst Cities in the World for Pickpocketing | EscapeHere

An article about pickpocketing in the USA
The lost art of pickpocketing: Why has the crime become so rare in the United States?

Some snippets:

The venerable crime has all but disappeared in the United States. What happened, and should we miss it?

Pickpocketing in America was once a proud criminal tradition, rich with drama, celebrated in the culture, singular enough that its practitioners developed a whole lexicon to describe its intricacies. Those days appear to be over. "Pickpocketing is more or less dead in this country," says Harvard economist Edward Glaeser, whose new book Triumph of the City, deals at length with urban crime trends.
......
Marcus Felson, a criminologist at Texas State University who has spent decades studying low-level crime, calls pickpocketing a "lost art." Last year, a New York City subway detective told the Daily News that the only pickpockets left working the trains anymore were middle-aged or older, and even those are few and far between. "You don't find young picks anymore," the cop told the paper. "It's going to die out." A transit detective in the Massachusetts Bay Transit Authority, which operates the Boston area's bus, commuter rail, and subway system, concurred via e-mail. "Pickpockets are a dying breed," he wrote. "The only known pickpockets we encounter are older, middle-aged men; however, they are rarely seen on the system anymore."
.....
The decline of dipping on the rails is extraordinary. Subways were always the happiest hunting grounds for pickpockets, who would work alone or in teams.
....
Experts offer a few explanations for the gradual disappearance of pickpockets in the United States. Crime nationwide—from pickpocketing to homicide—has been dropping since the mid-1990s. People carry less cash today, and thanks to enhanced security features, it's harder for thieves to use stolen credit or debit cards than it was in the past. And perhaps most important, the centuries-old apprenticeship system underpinning organized pickpocketing has been disrupted.
.....
This is not the case in Europe, where pickpocketing has been less of a priority for law enforcement and where professionals from countries like Bulgaria and Romania, each with storied traditions of pickpocketing, are able to travel more freely since their acceptance into the European Union in 2007, developing their organizations and plying their trade in tourist hot spots like Barcelona, Rome, and Prague. "The good thieves in Europe are generally 22 to 35," says Bob Arno, a criminologist and consultant who travels the world posing as a victim to stay atop the latest pickpocketing techniques and works with law enforcement agencies to help them battle the crime. "In America they are dying off, or they had been apprehended so many times that it's easier for law enforcement to track them and catch them.

 

[Hamartia Antidote]

Top Selling vehicles in the USA in 2013,

#1) Ford F-150 (pickup truck)
#2) Chevrolet Silverado (pickup truck)
#3) Toyota Camry
#4) Honda Accord
#5) Dodge Ram 1500 (pickup truck)
#6) Honda Civic
#7) Nissan Altima
#8) Toyota Corolla
#9) Honda CR-V (SUV)
#10) Ford Escape (SUV)
#11) Ford Fusion
#12) Chevrolet Cruze
#13) Ford Focus
#14) Chevrolet Equinox LTZ (SUV)
#15) Toyota Prius
#16) Toyota RAV4 (SUV)
#17) Hyundai Sonata
#18) Chevrolet Malibu
#19) Ford Explorer (SUV)
#20) GMC Sierra (pickup truck)

hmm...no Volkswagens

 

[VCheng]

Top Selling vehicles in the USA in 2013,

#1) Ford F-150 (pickup truck)
#2) Chevrolet Silverado (pickup truck)
#3) Toyota Camry
#4) Honda Accord
#5) Dodge Ram 1500 (pickup truck)
#6) Honda Civic
#7) Nissan Altima
#8) Toyota Corolla
#9) Honda CR-V (SUV)
#10) Ford Escape (SUV)
#11) Ford Fusion
#12) Chevrolet Cruze
#13) Ford Focus
#14) Chevrolet Equinox LTZ (SUV)
#15) Toyota Prius
#16) Toyota RAV4 (SUV)
#17) Hyundai Sonata
#18) Chevrolet Malibu
#19) Ford Explorer (SUV)
#20) GMC Sierra (pickup truck)

hmm...no Volkswagens

VW scores much better in the diesel list.

 

[Hamartia Antidote]

VW scores much better in the diesel list.

Well diesel can be hard to find as it isn't required to be carried at gas stations.
The price used to be less than regular and then shot passed it.

U.S. Gasoline and Diesel Retail Prices
Diesel at $3.84, Regular at $3.50

@Syed.Ali.Haider now? hmmm Didn't know you can do that.

 

[Mugwop]

44 Frank Sinatra asks Lou Gehrig for an autograph in 1939

A young Bill Clinton meets John F. Kennedy

The US-built ENIAC (Electronic Numerical Integrator and Computer) was one of the first computer ever made

STeve Jobs sitting with Bill Gates discussing the future of computing in 1991.

Arnold Schwarzenegger in New York for the first time in 1968

 

[Hamartia Antidote]

 

[Hamartia Antidote]

Life in the USA: Average commute time to work

Compare your commute time to the rest of America’s with this interactive map



"How long does it take you to get to work? Five minutes? Twenty? An hour? Most of us can estimate the time we spend on our daily commute — but how does yours compare to the people in your zip code, your state, or the rest of the country? Here's your chance to find out.

The interactive map below was released yesterday by WYNC in concurrence with the U.S. Census Bureau's latest stats on nationwide commute times. The average travel time to work in the United States? 25.4 minutes. If you live somewhere like Dodge City, Kansas, odds are you come in well below the national average. But if you're commuting into Manhattan every day? You sad, sad bastard.

 

[Hamartia Antidote]

Life in the USA: How Americans get to work.

Majority Of Commuters Still Driving Each Day
"Americans may hate rush-hour traffic, but not enough to give up their cars. Latest figures available show more than three-quarters of commuters drive to work alone.

Suburbanites are the most likely solo commuters -- 81.5 percent of them drive alone. Overall, 86 percent of commuters drive themselves in cars, trucks or vans. Only 5 percent use public transportation. Fewer still walk or ride bicycles.

Hispanics are most likely to carpool. 16.5 percent of them do so – compared to 9.5 percent for non-Hispanics. 11.5 percent of African-Americans use public transportation, the most of any ethnic group."


Commuter Nation: How America gets to work | Marketplace.org
"America is a nation of drivers, particularly when it comes to how we get to work.
Across the country, the vast majority of us commute by car, and most of the time we’re alone, according to the latest data from the Census Bureau. But in some pockets of the U.S. there's a growing population of commuters taking public transportation, carpooling, walking, and even riding a bike.

I drive alone
In 43 states, more than three-quarters of the commuter population drive alone to work. Only New York was significantly lower -- with almost half of Empire State commuters saying they get work in other ways. The least carpool-friendly states by percent are Alabama, Tennessee, and South Carolina.

Share the road
Hawaii and Alaska lead the nation in carpool commuting. About 14 percent of their commuter populations share a ride to work. Most states reported somewhere between 8 percent and 11 percent in this commuter category.

More of us take the bus
Not surprisingly, states with major metropolitan populations and large public transit systems have the highest use of public transit: New York leads by a wide margin with about 28 percent of its commuter population taking a train, subway or bus. Massachusetts and Illinois came in at a distant second and third with about 9 percent of their respective commuter populations taking public transportation.

Meanwhile Alabama, Arkansas, Maine, and Mississippi are among 17 states with less than 1 percent of their commuter population on public transit.

Foot-powered commuters are few
In our data set, bicycling and walking remain the least-popular methods for commuting to work. No state reported more than 5 percent of their commuter population on bikes. Thanks to its bike-friendly city of Portland, the state of Oregon topped the list - but still its bike population is only about 4.63 percent of the total. The majority of states didn’t break 1 percent in this category (Full disclosure, this is how I get to work).http://www.marketplace.org/topics/l...electric-bike-alternative-alternative-commute

Those who walk to work, meanwhile, are more common than bike-to-work commuters in almost every state, but still represent only a small slice of each state's commuter population. New York had the second-highest number of walking commuters, along with the other top states – Alaska (#1), Vermont (#3) and Montana (#4)."

interactive map
How America Commutes to Work | Marketplace Maps | Marketplace.org

 

[Hamartia Antidote]

Life in the USA: Commuting to work by Car.

Current price about $3.65/gallon ($0.96/liter)

cupholders are for the morning coffee

Working in the city: The parking garage

It's not always free

or if you work in the suburbs...free parking.

 

[Hamartia Antidote]

Life in the USA: Commuting to work by Commuter rail - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

In some metro areas workers have an alternative choice than to drive in by car - commuter rail.
(this should not to be confused with a subway or long distance Rail transport - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia )

"Commuter rail, also called suburban rail, is a passenger rail transport service that primarily operates between a city center, and the middle to outer suburbs beyond 15 km (10 miles) and commuter towns or other locations that draw large numbers of commuters — people who travel on a daily basis. Trains operate following a schedule, at speeds varying from 50 to 200 km/h (30 to 125 mph). Distance charges or zone pricing may be used."

Workers typically drive from their town to a station located outside the city metro area. Park their cars in either a free parking lot or a reduced price lot and take the train in. The train has a fee (usually monthly).

List of United States commuter rail systems by ridership - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

 

[Hamartia Antidote]

Life in the USA: Commuting to work by Bus/Trolley/Subway

In some metro areas a bus/trolley/subway system is available.
Bus:

Articulated Bus:

Trolley:

Trackless trolley

Subway

List of United States rapid transit systems by ridership - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

 

[Hamartia Antidote]

Life in the USA: Commuting to work by Air shuttle - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

A far less common method of commuting but still common/important enough to exist.

"An air shuttle is a scheduled airline service on short routes with a simplified fare and class structure. No exact definition exists, but frequency is usually hourly or more often and travel time is typically an hour or less. Network airlines may operate shuttle services as one-class or no-frill services, similar to low-cost airlines."

 

[Hamartia Antidote]

Label Laws: 1913 Gould Amendment - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

"requiring that the contents of any food package had to be “plainly and conspicuously marked on the outside of the package in terms of weight, measure, or numerical count and ingredients”"

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1924 Supreme court rules for "truth in advertising" on labels (bans misleading statements such as "pure juice" made from apple powder reconstituted with water)

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1960 Federal Hazardous Substances Labeling Act
Enforced by FDA, requires prominent label warnings on hazardous household chemical products.

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1966 Child Protection Act
Banned toys considered so inherently dangerous to children that warning labels were not even good enough.

The set came with four types of uranium ore, a beta-alpha source (Pb-210), a pure beta source (Ru-106), a gamma source (Zn-65?), a spinthariscope, a cloud chamber with its own short-lived alpha source (Po-210), an electroscope, a geiger counter, a manual, a comic book

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1990 Nutrition Labeling and Education Act of 1990 - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

 

[Hamartia Antidote]

Life in the USA: The decline of using hard currency in transactions

An armored truck picking up cash from a retailer (not as often as it used to be)